Chapter 116
Yu Hanjiang was soaked by the water. He was wearing a suit and his hair was wet. His originally resolute facial lines weren’t so sharp due to his wet hair, giving him an air of s.e.xiness.
Xiao Lou looked at the wet Group Leader Yu and couldn’t help asking the keeper, “A of Clubs, since we are teammates, can we change positions with each other if we land on a grid we aren’t good at?”
For example, just now, Xiao Lou landed on Spades and had to run a race with the Tibetan mastiff. This was simple for Group Leader Yu. Similarly, Yu Hanjiang landed on Diamonds grid and these questions could be easily resolved by Xiao Lou. If they can change, they could take advantage of their respective strengths and gain more rewards.
The Clubs youth replied lightly. “The grids can’t be exchanged. The ones you land on must be solved on your own.”
“…Fine.”
His hope was dashed.
The Clubs teenager then turned to look at the wet Yu Hanjiang. “However, you can accept the punishment for your teammate.”
Yu Hanjiang wondered, “You mean, if a teammate fails in a grid challenge, the other person can take his place to receive the punishment?”
The Clubs teenager nodded. “Yes.”
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other. Yu Hanjiang thought that if he encountered the punishment of being drenched with water later, he could replace Xiao Lou. There was no difference between Yu Hanjiang being drenched once or twice but Xiao Lou couldn’t be so embarra.s.sed.
Once Yu Hanjiang accepted the punishment of water, it was Liu Qiao’s turn.
Liu Qiao was lucky in the first round. She directly landed on the Clubs grid and earned 100,000 gold coins. In the second round Liu Qiao threw a four and once again landed on Clubs. However, this time a red warning prompt appeared on the screen. “You have mistakenly entered the Clubs penalty grid by mistake. Please leave 200,000 gold coins!”
Liu Qiao, “……”
She just earned 100,000 gold coins and could barely feel the heat. Now she had to give away 100,000. Liu Qiao’s face wasn’t good. She didn’t have much money and the chrysoberyl bracelet and jade raw stone she got from Liuxi Village hadn’t been sold yet. This time, Liu Qiao lost almost all her a.s.sets and became penniless.
The fourth masked man three a six and entered the Diamonds grid. The question he drew was also a mathematical one. The masked man failed to get the answer within 10 seconds and like Yu Hanjiang, he suddenly fell into a pit. A bucket of cold water was poured on top of his head!
The man was drenched and became like a drowned chicken. Once he returned to the ground, he looked embarra.s.sed and couldn’t help exclaiming, “Why do these questions have the feeling of studying for three years in high school, doing a final review and doing the university entrance examination?”
Xiao Lou was amused by his words and had a thought. Pa.s.sing the fourth level allowed them to enter the main city. This secret room had a question and answer session and it was really like an entrance examination.
If they didn’t take it seriously, they wouldn’t be able to answer the question and would be punished. The masked man obviously wasn’t very serious. It was just like the question of the Hearts grid. Xiao Lou remembered the names of all the teaching buildings of Maple Forest High School but the masked man couldn’t answer it.
Another round of the game pa.s.sed and it was Xiao Lou’s turn again. Xiao Lou carefully observed the distribution of the diamond field. Each of the four sides had 13 grids and was arranged in the circular order of Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. At present, he was standing on a Spades grid. This was followed by Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and Hearts.
He was seven steps away from the K of Hearts in the corner. The die had a maximum of six points. This meant that he couldn’t jump directly to K of Hearts. If he wanted to land on K of Hearts, he had to throw the die at least twice and the points had to add up to seven.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath, picked up the die and gently dropped it on the disc. A four. This meant he would enter Spades again! Xiao Lou’s face was somewhat ugly. He wasn’t good at the physical confrontation grid. He had been chased by the Tibetan mastiff just now and his legs were a bit weak. If he had to run again, he probably wouldn’t be able to run to the end.
However, this time the prompt on the screen was very strange. “In one minute, do push-ups. You will be qualified if it is over 35 push-ups. Less than 35 means a punishment.”
Xiao Lou, “…”
Your sister!
The masked man couldn’t help laughing. “This is a physical exam?”
Xiao Lou looked at the 60 seconds that started counting down on the screen and helplessly had to do the push-ups.
For a push-up event, he had hovered on the edge of pa.s.sing since middle school. Today’s psychological pressure was relatively big plus he had just run for his life. His physical consumption was serious and he was wearing a suit and leather shoes. His movements were restricted when doing push-ups and by the end of the countdown, Xiao Lou had only done 34. He just needed one more!
Xiao Lou stood up and looked worriedly at the big screen. A red exclamation point appeared on the screen. “The challenge has failed. Please accept the punishment!”
Before he had time to ask about the punishment, he listened to Yu Hanjiang say, “I’ll take it for him.”
The Clubs teenager stared coldly at Yu Hanjiang. “The punishment of the Spades grid is crueller. Are you certain you want to replace him?”
Yu Hanjiang didn’t hesitate to go to Xiao Lou in the grid, looking gently at Xiao Lou. “You have just run a whole circle and must be very tired. Rest for a while and I will take the punishment for you.”
Xiao Lou’s heart was warm but it wasn’t good to let Group Leader Yu take his place. “I can do it…”
Yu Hanjiang shook his head while holding Xiao Lou’s shoulder. “Don’t be stubborn. Your physical energy consumption is too serious and you must retain physical strength. Perhaps next time, you will once again land on Spades.”
The man’s eyes were resolute and deep. Xiao Lou stared at it and nodded to himself.
Spades’ punishment appeared on the screen. “Please find the 8 of Spades playing card from the box full of spiders in front of you.”
A transparent box appeared in front of them. The box full of hairy spiders crawling around made people look afraid. There were several playing cards at the bottom of the box. A challenger needed to reach in and grab the cards from the spiders.
Xiao Lou saw this and couldn’t help paling. His most hated animal was a spider. If it wasn’t for Group Leader Yu replacing him…
He couldn’t even think about reaching into the ma.s.s of spiders.
Yu Hanjiang’s eyes were calm. The moment the penalty began, he stuffed his hand into the box. Yu Hanjiang’s body wasn’t trembling or stiff at all as he reached for the cards surrounded by spiders. He looked calm like he was looking for the cards through sand. He used his long fingers to gently move a nearby spider to the side and took out a card at an extremely fast speed.
It was 4 of Spades and didn’t meet the requirements. Yu Hanjiang once again picked up a card and this time it was 5 of Spades. He was calm as he put his hand in the box full of spiders for a third time. This time, he finally pulled out the 8 of Spades playing card.
Yu Hanjiang handed this card to Xiao Lou and completed the penalty for Xiao Lou. The back of his hand showed signs of several spider bite and the few blood beads were bright red and dazzling. Xiao Lou’s eyes were calm and his heart moved as he whispered, “Thank you.”
Yu Hanjiang’s lips curved. “Why so polite?”
The masked man saw this scene and couldn’t help saying, “Liu Qiao, you might be a girl but I won’t accept punishment for you. We aren’t too familiar. If you jump to this grid then you have to rely on your luck.” He was also afraid of spiders!
Liu Qiao looked back at him. “I don’t need you to replace me and I won’t replace you.”
Compared to Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang’s mutual care, the two temporarily matched teammates showed no signs of ‘accepting punishment for their teammates.’ It was more like they were playing alone.
Next was Yu Hanjiang’s turn. This time, he got a good hand and threw a two, walking from Diamonds to Hearts. The question popped up on the screen. “How many chocolates were there at Maple Forest High School?”
Even Xiao Lou, who was good at Hearts, had a headache when seeing this question. Who would pay attention to this detail? At that time, they searched the cla.s.sroom and he only noticed there was a box of chocolates in Yu Hui’s schoolbag. He hadn’t counted the exact number.
He thought Yu Hanjiang wouldn’t be able to answer it. Unexpectedly, Group Leader Yu didn’t hesitate to say, “14.”
As a police officer, he couldn’t let go of any details at the scene of the crime. Yu Hui’s chocolates were in a square box with rows of four. There were a total of four rows, two of which had been given to Xiaoya. Thus, there were 14 in the box.
The text on the screen turned to the correct green. “The challenge has succeeded. Random reward: You can copy a card in the card pack. Select the card you want to copy.”
Yu Hanjiang took out his card pack to take a loot. Out of the cards he and Xiao Lou currently held, some were team limited. Cards like Di Renjie, Human Bone Medicine Jar and Balance were useless to copy since one team could only bring one card.
It was naturally more cost-effective to copy S-grade cards that were unlimited. The firearms type card couldn’t be used by Xiao Lou and Xie Qi. It wasn’t meaningful to copy them.
Yu Hanjiang asked the keeper, “Can I copy a card from my teammate’s pack?”
The keeper nodded. “Of course.”
Yu Hanjiang walked to Xiao Lou’s side and asked, “Do you have any cards you want to copy?”
Xiao Lou thought carefully before pulling out Qin Guan. “Do you want to copy this one? Qin Guan’s heart connection skill is very good to use. We don’t have to speak and our minds will be communicated to each other. In the future, our team will have more people. If there is more than one Qin Guan then we can establish a few channels of communication when acting separately.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Okay.”
He took the card from Xiao Lou and copied it. In this way, they had two S-grade Qin Guan cards. In the future, the team could establish a heart channel and keep in touch at any time. This could also cross main cities and secret rooms. This reward was really great.
In 4 of Clubs, Card Flying Chess might have big punishments but compared to the rewards… these punishments were nothing.
Liu Qiao stepped into a Diamonds grid. She did the math question very quickly and was successful. She obtained a reward card and it was the same one as Xiao Lou, the [Tool Card: Scissors.]
The fourth masked man was more unlucky today. He stepped on Clubs and directly had 200,000 gold coins deducted. In the fourth round of the game, the die returned to Xiao Lou’s hands. He stood on Spades. In front of him were Diamonds and Clubs and the third grid was K of Hearts. As long as he threw a three, he could directly step on K of Hearts and clear it.
Xiao Lou turned the die in his hand and gently threw it. The speed of the die’s rotation gradually slowed. Xiao Lou was tense as it looked like it would stop on a three. As a result, the wayward die suddenly turned over and landed on a five.
Xiao Lou, “…”
He took five steps, crossing K of Hearts and entering the Diamonds grid on the other side. He didn’t stop on K of Hearts but it was the Diamonds grid that he was good at. This made Xiao Lou slightly relieved.
This time, the Diamonds grid showed a five elements mechanism array. A large disc appeared on the screen with five small discs going clockwise. The disc was marked with metal, wood, water, fire and earth. He had to adjust the order so that the five-line array was in the correct ‘mutual generation’ sequence.
Xiao Lou extended his hand and quickly adjusted the order to wood, fire, earth, gold and water. This way, wood fed fire, fire created earth, earth bore metal, metal collected water and water nourished wood.
The mechanism time limit was 10 seconds and Xiao Lou successfully resolved it. The screen showed the prompt. “The answer is correct. Received the random reward [Tool Card: Night Pearl].”
It was an A-grade tool card. In the dark night, especially in the wildness, the Night Pearl could be used for illumination. The Night Pearl could illuminate the area around it, 180 degrees in front and in a 10 metres wide arc. There was no cooldown time and no usage time limit.
Xiao Lou’s heart was happy. This card was a functional tool card. It had no combat power but the lighting was very important. In particular, it wasn’t convenient to hold a torch for lighting in the wildness environment or harsh weather conditions. Night Pearl could play a great role.
Xiao Lou looked back at Group Leader Yu since it was his turn. Yu Hanjiang was currently standing on a Hearts grid and he just needed to take four steps to land on the K of Hearts in the corner. He hoped that Group Leader Yu could roll a four.
However, Yu Hanjiang threw a three and could only walk into the Clubs grid. It was one step away from K of Hearts! Yu Hanjiang also felt helpless as he looked at the nearby K of Hearts. He went forward three steps and stopped on the Clubs grid. A prompt appeared on the screen. “You have entered the Clubs grid and can get 100,000 gold coins.”
The Clubs grid seemed to be random. Some were rewards and some were punishments. The reward was 100,000 gold coins while Liu Qiao stepped in the punishment and lost 200,000 gold coins. It was a game of luck.
It was Liu Qiao’s turn and she looked forward. K of Hearts was in the corner. She was six steps away from it. If she could roll a six then she could directly land on K of Hearts. Liu Qiao silently prayed in her heart. Then she picked up the die and gently threw it into the disc.
The die turned quickly a few times before finally settling in front of the earnest eyes of the other three. Then it landed on a six!
Liu Qiao was happy as she looked at the nearby Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou was also happy for her. “Little Liu, you can directly clear the instance.”
Liu Qiao nodded. “Yes, it is a good day.”
She stepped on Clubs in the first round and gained 100,000 gold coins. In the second round, it was still a Clubs grid but she lost 200,000 and became penniless. In the third round, she stepped onto Diamonds and gained a tool card. Then in the fourth round, she stepped onto the K card in the corner.
Challengers who stepped on the K card could go directly to the middle of the field, drawing from the treasure chest and clearing the instance. K of Hearts was the gold treasure chest. Liu Qiao quickly walked to the box and put her hand inside to casually draw the card.
[Congratulations to Liu Qiao for getting the S-grade summoning card Poison Queen!]
Liu Qiao took a closer looked at the card and Xiao Lou also looked curiously. He saw a queen in black with a beautiful bronze mirror in her hand.
“Is it the poisonous queen from the fairy tale?” Xiao Lou wondered.
“Yes, from Snow White.”
[Summoning Card: Poison Queen]
Rarity: S
Description: There is a certain probability of obtaining it from the limited card pool of the reward secret room.
Additional Skill 1: Magic Mirror, Who is the Most Beautiful?
The Poison Queen asks the mirror in her hand, “Who is the most beautiful woman in the world?” The mirror will answer, “Snow White.” In her anger, the Poison Queen will throw the mirror out in a designated 10 x 10 metres range. Then it will shine on every enemy in range. The enemy will see themselves in the mirror and find they are too ugly. In shame, they will collectively stop attacking. If they attack, the attacks will be bounced back by the mirror.
Simply put, it is a magical environment and cast ‘silence’ and ‘anti-injury.’
Additional Skill 2: Poisonous Apple
The Poison Queen takes out an apple that is highly poisonous and feeds the poisonous apple to the designated target. The target will immediately enter a dying state. If the target can’t get the help of an antidote card within 10 minutes, the target will die.]
Xiao Lou couldn’t help praising, “This card is very strong.”
Liu Qiao seemed to have a close relationship with fairytale cards. She previously drew Little Red Riding Hood and today she drew the Poison Queen from Snow White. The Poison Queen’s first skill was an anti-attack card and the second skill could kill the enemy if used well.
This was a very strong S-grade attack card. Liu Qiao was obviously very happy as she put away this S-grad card.
The Clubs teenager spoke lightly. “The third player Liu Qiao, you cleared it first and can choose to leave 4 of Clubs or wait for your teammate to end the game.”
Liu Qiao wasn’t in a hurry to leave. She stood by to see the results of Professor Xiao and Group Leader Yu. She lost money in this secret room but fortunately, she could see the chrysoberyl bracelet and jade raw stone for money. However, she was a girl who didn’t understand the price of the jade raw stone. It was easy for her to be cheated if she sold it by herself. It was more reliable to give it to Chief Shao.
Chief Shao and Professor Xiao had already formed a team and would definitely meet in the City of the Moon. The wisest thing was to wait for their game to end and go to the City of the Moon together.
Xiao Lou found Liu Qiao standing by and guessed her idea. He smiled at her and said, “Little Liu, wait for us to clear the instance and we will go to the City of the Moon together.”
Liu Qiao immediately nodded. “Okay!”